1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for utilizing the processing power of a plurality of mobile electronic devices within a network to perform grid computational tasks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, computer systems are becoming increasingly pervasive in our society. These pervasive computer systems include small handheld mobile electronic devices, such as cellular telephones and personal data assistants (PDAs). With increasing power and functionality, these mobile electronic devices now contain significant amounts of computing power. Thus, these mobile electronic devices have evolved into more of a powerful computing platform, instead of just a signal processor.
Typically, the duty cycle of these mobile electronic devices is quite small, focusing on brief, on-demand activities, such as sending and receiving voice or text messages. Statistically, most processing units within these mobile electronic devices are utilized less than five percent of the operational time. Consequently, the total possible computing power of these mobile electronic devices is vastly under utilized. Furthermore, these mobile electronic devices are likely to become ubiquitous and via “always on” connections, these mobile electronic devices may become accessible to a global network of other devices. However, currently there is no good method for harnessing this under utilized computing power of mobile electronic devices and thus, this computing power is wasted.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an improved computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for utilizing the processing power of a plurality of mobile electronic devices within a network to perform distributed computational tasks.